Only Old Tan knew about Qi Xian’s early return to the team in advance. This was indeed a big surprise for the others. The most surprised among them was not Cheese or Yu Zhaohan, but – Coach Lu Youshan.

Lu Youshan pounced on Qi Xian, hugged him, and burst into tears: “Qi Xian, you came at the right time! We’ve had such a tough time against Lawman. We were on the verge of losing. I-I pray to God for your recovery every night. I don’t know how to live without you.”

Qi Xian patted the coach on the shoulder and said like coaxing a child: “It’s okay, it’s okay now.”

Stone was surprised and said: “It turns out that the coach and Brother Xian have such a good relationship, I didn’t even notice it before.”

Shi Du smiled and said, “He’s not hugging Brother Xian, he’s hugging the mecha from the game.”

It was just that Qi Xian was gentle and patient with his own people. If it were someone else, he would have slapped Lu Youshan’s forehead and sent him away.

Yu Zhaohan asked, “How’s your hand recovering?”

“Just finished a round of rehabilitation. Now, it’s no problem for two or three hours,” Qi Xian took off his double-breasted coat, revealing a V-neck sweater underneath. He rolled up his sleeves, revealing the fine scars on the back of his wrist.

“Are there any training matches?” Qi Xian moved his wrist, saying, “It’s been a while since I played. My hands are a bit itchy.”

Lu Youshan said hurriedly: “Yes, yes, we have made an appointment with PPZ to start at nine o’clock, just in time for Shine and I to evaluate your current status.”

After Qi Xian had the surgery, he hardly trained for a while and only recently started to regain his touch. Whether he can play or not depends on his condition in training games.

Old Tan remembered something and grinned: “I almost forgot to tell you that Lawman wants to invite us to a training match.”

Cheese burst out with a vengeful laugh: “The way of heaven has come full circle! Back then, they refused to arrange training matches, and now they actively want to play against us—everyone, come and see, the face of Los Angeles Lawman is gone!”

“We can arrange it,” Shi Du said, “but there are too many teams wanting to play training matches with us. It’s like queuing from here to France. Let Lawman take a number and wait in line.”

Yu Zhaohan, being dumbfounded by his boyfriend, said, “We are currently in France.”

“Oh, sorry, forgot for a moment.”

Old Tan asked the captain: “Then should I refuse them?”

“Reject, just do what Timeless said.” Yu Zhaohan said, “Remember to change ‘France’ to ‘South Korea’.”

In the training match against PPZ, R.H used the tank-support combination of Qi Xian and Cheese.

Lu Youshan didn’t plan to let too many people know about Qi Xian’s return to the team. Hiding moves was also a common tactic on the field. When opponents thought their tank positions were stable on Stone, introducing Qi Xian suddenly would catch them off guard. For this reason, Qi Xian used Stone’s game account in the training match.

For a team like RH that values teamwork, changing just one player’s position can have a profound impact. Lu Youshan looked at the four people sitting in front of their computers—Shine, Timeless, Clown, Cheese—this was the dream team he initially envisioned.

These four have been fighting side by side for the longest time in RH. Regardless of whether Qi Xian’s performance can return to his peak level, the synergy between these four won’t be affected by a surgery.

On the first map, a coordinated move between the tank and sniper quickly turned the tide for RH.

PPZ knew the importance of defending against Shine; their tanks set up a shield in front of their backline, perfectly blocking Shine’s line of sight.

It wasn’t until Clown charged in with his mecha, precisely finding the support and sending them flying. Just as the PPZ support flew out from behind the shield, Shine’s sight landed steadily on their forehead—a fatal shot.

On the second map, PPZ copied Lawman’s tactics against Cheese. However, after a whole game, Cheese surprisingly didn’t die once.

Clown protected the support too well; he always managed to put a lifesaving photon shield on Cheese at the most critical moments. Cheese narrowly escaped death several times, continuously healing his teammates. The health bars of RH’s four members simply couldn’t be pushed down.

On the third map, Timeless played the female assassin, the Light Hunter. The ultimate move of the Light Hunter is to throw a sticky bomb at enemies. This bomb causes devastating damage only if it sticks to an enemy.

The higher the damage of the skill, the harder it is to hit. Even the hit rate of the top Light Hunter’s ultimate is only around 60%, and Timeless’s Light Hunter data ranks second in the league, with a hit rate of 59.8%.

To win the last crucial team fight, PPZ used three ultimates on Cheese and Shine, both of them died, leaving only Timeless and Clown to fight against four.

Timeless’s ultimate move has not yet been released, and Light Hunter’s sticky bomb was their only bargaining chip to win against the odds.

However, even Timeless couldn’t guarantee that he could carry his teammates every time. He dashed into the enemy crowd, and threw the sticky bomb. Unfortunately, the bomb missed the enemy by a small margin.

At this moment, Clown’s nearly depleted mecha charged over and bumped three squishes right into the bomb.

The bomb exploded individually, and Timeless secured a triple kill, with each kill having an assist from Clown.

After three rounds, RH led with a 3-0 score, but PPZ claimed they had something urgent to attend to and couldn’t continue the match.

Training matches were supposed to be played like official playoffs, a full seven games. However, PPZ was already bewildered; playing further would likely result in a 4-0 defeat, and the players’ mentality would crumble.

Old Tan asked PPZ’s manager when they could schedule the next training match. The manager, speaking not very fluent Chinese, said, “Sorry, we’ve decided to temporarily put RH on the blacklist for training matches.”

Old Tan: “Why?”

PPZ manager bitterly explained, “Because after playing against you guys, our players suddenly feel like they don’t know how to play the game anymore.”

Old Tan laughed, “I’ll take that as a compliment. Hahaha, thank you¹He said it it English.”

PPZ Manager: “No need to say ‘Thank you’, just say ‘thank you’.”

Old Tan hung up the phone and said with a smile: “This new manager at PPZ is quite interesting, much better than the previous one.”

Yu Zhaohan asked Qi Xian: “How are your hands?”

Qi Xian smiled and said: “It’s pretty good.”

The training match lasted only an hour, and his hand’s condition was still good. However, he was aware that if it were a match like against Lawman, lasting more than three hours, he might not be able to maintain his performance throughout.

It seemed like Shi Du also thought about this. He said, “If we have to play Lawman in the finals and lose 4:3, it would be embarrassing, brothers.”

“That’s right!” Cheese, who had an exceptionally low death rate today, was full of confidence. “Let’s not talk about 4:0 or 4:1; at least make it a 4:2!”

Shi Du mocked him, “You dare not even exaggerate, too scared.”

Qi Xian had just returned to the team, and Yu Zhaohan didn’t want him to tire too much, so he postponed the analysis of the training match until tomorrow, letting everyone go to their room early to rest.

Stone took the initiative to stay and practice more. Yu Zhaohan was worried that Stone would be unbalanced, so he asked Shi Du to go back first. He wanted to talk to Stone alone.

Stone rarely spends time alone with the captain, so he was happy but also a little worried: “Captain, won’t Timeless wait for you?”

Yu Zhaohan didn’t know why Stone asked this question: “I asked him to go back first.”

“Oh…then he will be waiting for you in the room when you go back.”

Yu Zhaohan said “hmm” and said: “With Qi Xian’s current condition, if he can maintain it, he might play in the finals. You…”

“I know, Captain.” Stone hurriedly replied, “I am Qi Xian’s substitute. He plays better than me. Whoever is excellent plays, that’s how every team is.”

Yu Zhaohan felt quite relieved. He knew Stone wasn’t that kind of person, and he was right about him.

Yu Zhaohan timely offered encouragement, “Qi Xian has more time cooperating with us, but if you continue to adapt to the team, your future might be just as good as his. We won’t overlook your training. If you want extra practice, I’ll duo queue with you; all-nighters are not a problem.”

Stone was flattered and said excitedly: “Is that okay, captain? You and I will queue up all night long, and Timeless, who is alone in the empty room, will be jealous. But jealousy is also another kind of sweetness.”

Yu Zhaohan: “?”

What is this silly kid saying?

The next day, the RH team packed their bags and prepared to go to Berlin, Germany, for the third week of the competition.

Shi Du sat on the sofa in the lobby, watching the recording of yesterday’s training match, waiting for Old Tan and the others to complete the check-out procedures. Suddenly, he caught a faint scent of men’s cologne. Among the RH members, only one person used cologne.

Shi Du took off his headphones without raising his head: “Brother Xian.”

Qi Xian stretched out his hand in front of Shi Du, holding a list in French between his index and middle fingers: “Last time, someone seemed to have told me that he and the captain focused on a spiritual love, which starts with love but ends with courtesy.”

Shi Du wasn’t buying Qi Xian’s act: Don’t say ‘someone,’ just say I said it.”

“Yes, that’s you.” Qi Xian said, “Then do you know what preservatif means in French?”

Shi Du was proficient in English and Korean, but not in French, “What does it mean?”

Qi Xian acted like a big brother and told his younger brother the meaning of preservatif, not forgetting to tease: “R.H’s youngest brother is also growing up. It’s not a bad thing. Why not admit it—feeling shy?”

Shi Du glanced at the list and confidently chuckled, “Who says that using these necessarily means growing up? Can’t you be pure while also being in love and proper?”

Qi Xian, who was responsible for both R.H’s EQ and IQ, showed a rare expression of confusion: “What?”

“Give up, Brother Xian,” Shi Du patted Qi Xian on the shoulder, “You won’t understand what happened between me and the captain.”

Qi Xian: “…I really don’t understand.”

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  He said it it English